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OTTAWA – Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff denies he helped prepare the United States military for the 2003 Iraq invasion, despite eight-year-old praise from American military officials he worked with.

In Saint John, N.B., Wednesday, Ignatieff laughed off a question from QMI Agency tying him to the U.S.-led invasion.

“Every single premise in your question is materially and factually false,” Ignatieff said. “I was working on a project to reduce civilian casualties in armed combat operations. I’m extremely proud of the work we did there.

“At no time, in no way, was I ever involved in the planning of any offensive combat operations by any military forces,” he added.

As reported by QMI Agency on Wednesday, Ignatieff — who led Harvard University’s Carr Center for Human Rights Policy — was part of an academic advisory team that worked with U.S. State Department and American military officials to conduct strategy sessions before the invasion.

Ignatieff said the centre’s program — which also included members from the Canadian Forces, and the British and Israeli militaries as well — ran for years and was not Iraqi-specific.

A Liberal Party spokesman said Wednesday that Amnesty International and other humanitarian groups were involved with the conferences the centre organized.

“Remember Kosovo? We went in to protect a population and civilians were unfortunately killed. Every military that we talked to was … trying to reduce those casualties. They wanted a public place to discuss those issues,” Ignatieff said Wednesday. “I’m extremely proud of my record doing that, because I think that’s the kind of thing Canadians should be doing — finding ways in which we improve and increase respect for the laws of war and human rights.”

Just a day before the Iraq invasion in 2003, a top official with the U.S, air force praised Ignatieff — considered a liberal hawk at the time for supporting the invasion — for helping the military prepare comprehensive plans to mitigate civilian deaths in the invasion.

“I personally have been working with the Carr Center for Human Rights,” said U.S. Col. Gary Crowder on March 19, 2003. “Michael Ignatieff and Sarah Sewell (another Carr Center employee) and their program are a wonderful program.

“They bring non-governmental organizations, military officers, policy makers (and) media into a forum in which we can discuss these issues and better understand exactly each of our requirements,” Crowder told reporters in a Pentagon briefing. “If we’re required to conduct military operations, we would desire to conduct those while minimizing collateral damage and unintended damage.”

Ignatieff has been trying to distance himself from his support for the Iraq War, which was denounced by opponents of the Bush administration the world over for its failure to obtain the approval of the UN and for finding no evidence of weapons of mass destruction.

During the French-language leaders debate last week, Ignatieff said a Liberal government would never send Canadian troops outside our borders without the approval of the UN.

IT’S FINALLY DAWNED ON THEM THAT GHADDAFI HAS ISLAMIST TIES! YOU DIDN’T NEED AN OFFICIAL REPORT, MOST PEOPLE BEYOND GRADE 6 COULD HAVE CLUED YOU IN…

Libyan rebels’ Islamist ties cause concern: report

Ahmed Jadallah/Reuters

Libya’s leader Muammar Gaddafi gestures to his supporters before making a speech in which he sought to defuse tensions after more than 10 days of anti-government protests, in Tripoli March 2, 2011. Gaddafi, orchestrating a populist response to rebels threatening his rule, blamed al Qaeda on Wednesday for creating turmoil and told applauding supporters there was a conspiracy to control Libya and its oil

A Canadian intelligence report written in late 2009 called the anti-Gaddafi stronghold of eastern Libya an “epicentre of Islamist extremism” and said “extremist cells” operated in the region, now being defended by a Canadian-led NATO coalition.

The report by the government’s Integrated Threat Assessment Centre said “several Islamist insurgent groups” were based in eastern Libya and mosques in Benghazi were urging followers to fight in Iraq.

“Within the region, the population holds more conservative views compared to the rest of Libya and Islamist activism is strongly concentrated,” said the report labelled ‘‘secret’’ and released to the National Post under the Access to Information Act.

Concerns about the composition of the rebels began to surface Tuesday as the U.S., Britain, and Qatar said they would consider arming the rebels and NATO was to take charge of the coalition air campaign over Libya.

U.S. Admiral James Stavridis, NATO Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, said there were “flickers” of al-Qaeda in the Libyan opposition. But he added there was no sign they were a significant component of the group that would replace Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.

He called the opposition “responsible men and women who are struggling against Col. Gaddafi.” CNN quoted an unnamed counterterrorism official who said there was probably “a sprinkling of extremists to perhaps include al-Qaeda” in the rebels, “but no one should think the opposition is being led by al-Qaeda or one of its affiliates.”

But just over a year ago, the Canadian government, in an intelligence assessment written at the request of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, raised concerns about Islamists in eastern Libya.

“There are a number of small, independent extremist cells operating in the eastern regions of Libya that have no affiliation to other established terrorist groups,” said the report, Terrorist Threat to Canadian Interests in Libya.

It downplayed direct links to al-Qaeda but said the terror group was an influence. “Many Libyan extremists who have been detained claimed to be influenced by al-Qaeda, but do not appear to have direct links to al-Qaeda core in Pakistan.”

Libyan opposition leaders met in London in Tuesday with Hillary Clinton, the U.S. Secretary of State, and David Cameron, the British Prime Minister, who signaled they would allow Col. Gaddafi to seek exile, rather than face a war crimes tribunal.

“We are examining very closely the content, composition, the personalities, who are the leaders of these opposition forces,” Adm. Stavridis testified at a Senate hearing. “We have seen flickers in the intelligence of potential al-Qaeda, Hezbollah.”

The remarks are likely to be seized on by Col. Gaddafi who has repeatedly claimed the uprising is driven by terrorists. But the admiral added, “At this point I don’t have detail sufficient to say there is a significant al-Qaeda presence or any other terrorist presence.”

The Canadian intelligence report, dated Dec. 8, 2009, said in the early 1990s “several thousand” fighters began regrouping in Libya after returning from the Soviet war in Afghanistan. After attempts on his life in 1996 and 1998, Col. Gaddafi responded with a counter-insurgency campaign that “effectively suppressed the Islamist insurgency.”

The Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, formed in 1991 to overthrow Col. Gaddafi and install shariah law, was crushed, its leaders imprisoned or exiled.

But during the Iraq war, imams at Benghazi’s mosques issued fatwas “instructing followers it was their duty to fight in Iraq. In geographical terms, therefore, the eastern regions represent the epicentre of Islamist extremism in Libya,” the report said.

It blamed unrest in the east partly on high unemployment and called Benghazi “underdeveloped relative to the rest of Libya.”

“The eastern region has traditionally been the site of previous rebellions against the Libyan regime and where several Islamist insurgent groups were based,” wrote ITAC, the Ottawa-based agency made up of representatives of CSIS, RCMP, Canadian Forces and other departments.

Canada’s relationship with Libya had “strengthened considerably” since Col. Gaddafi renounced terrorism and stopped producing weapons of mass destruction in 2003, it said. A dozen Canadian firms were operating in Libya as of November, 2009.

Canada’s Omar Khadr, who last fall pleaded guilty to war crimes in a U.S. military court at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is being schooled in his military prison at Guantanamo to prepare for his eventual release.

The Miami Herald is even reporting part of his education — a home schooling-like curriculum — had the 24-year-old read the part of Romeo, while his towering 6-6 military lawyer read the part of Juliet.

(Among the quotable from the Shakespeare classic: “Deny thy father and refuse thy name,” “These violent delights have violent ends,” “A plague on both your houses,” “Tempt not a desperate man” and “A greater power than we can contradict hath thwarted our intents.”)

In October, Khadr pleaded guilty to a series of war crimes, including killing a U.S. Special Forces solider with a grenade during a July 2002 firefight in Afghanistan when Khadr was 15.

He was also part of an al-Qaida explosives cell that was making and planting roadside bombs targeting U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

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According to Dennis Edney, Khadr’s Canadian lawyer, they’ve been bringing Khadr educational materials “on an ad hoc basis” for years, “because there’s no rehab programs there whatsoever.”

“If you ever check out the reports by foreign affairs when they sent officials down to see him over the years, the one thing that cries out is he’s always been asking to be educated,” Edney said. “Of course, that hasn’t happened.”

Edney said Khadr hasn’t received any formal education since elementary school, when his father — a well known al-Qaida financier — moved the family from Toronto to Pakistan.

Khadr’s education curriculum — designed by Edmonton’s Arlette Zinck, a professor at King’s University College ‹ reportedly includes history, math, astronomy, grammar and elocution.

Edney said they’re trying to bring him up to a Grade 12 level.

And according to Lt.-Col. Jon Jackson, Khadr’s military lawyer (a.k.a. Juliet), English education is an emphasis for Khadr to help him qualify as a mature student and be accepted into college if and when he returns to Canada, which could happen as early as this fall.

While the military jury in his war-crimes trial at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay sentenced the Toronto-born Khadr to 40 years behind bars, a secret plea bargain capped his sentence at eight years.

The deal also allows Khadr to apply to return to Canada next fall with the support of the U.S. government after serving one year of his sentence at the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay.

IT’S EVERYONE ELSE’S FAULT BUT ISLAM ACCORDING TO THE CBC…STILL HASN’T DAWNED ON THEM THAT ISLAM ITSELF IS FUELING EVERY SINGLE ARMED CONFLICT IN THE M.E…

Canadians handed children over to notorious Afghan security, CBC reports

Globe and Mail Update

Published Sunday, Nov. 28, 2010 10:48PM EST

Last updated Sunday, Nov. 28, 2010 10:57PM EST

The Canadian Forces in Afghanistan have for at least four years captured children accused of co-operating with the Taliban and transferred them to a local security unit suspected of torture, according to CBC News.

Defence Minister Peter MacKay was alerted to the issue by a secret briefing note, which the CBC obtained through access-to-information laws.

Dated March 30, 2010, the document is marked secret (for Canadian eyes only) and explains the pending addition of a fifth facility, this time for children, to the public list of prisons where Canadian-transferred detainees might be held.

It says the Canadian Forces have been arresting Afghan children since at least 2006 and that some of those children were transferred to Afghan custody. The number of juveniles detained and transferred and the number eventually released have all been blacked out.

“This may draw attention to the role of juveniles in the Afghan conflict,” the briefing note warns.

Parliament was consumed last fall with allegations that Canadian soldiers had picked up suspected Afghan militants and handed them over to Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security, a unit accused of torturing prisoners.

The briefing note was spawned, in part, by the Afghan government’s decision to begin holding children in the Kandahar Juvenile Rehabilitation Centre. A “change in policy” and construction at the notorious Sarpoza prison, prompted the change, according to the briefing note.

Underage detainees had previously been held in a separate wing at Sarpoza.

The CBC reported that although the briefing note said it was “likely” the government would add the new facility to its website, that did not happen until Oct. 28 – the same day the CBC received the document.

MORE SHADY DEALS MADE UNDER THE NOSES OF CANADIANS, AFTER ALL WE WOULDN’T WANT TO OFFEND THE VERY SAME BUNCH THAT OPENLY WANT TO KILL US…JUST THROW MONEY AT THEM AND THEY’LL LOVE US EH???

Karzai’s brother lobbied for role in Canada’s major aid project

CAMPBELL CLARK

OTTAWA — From Monday’s Globe and Mail

Published Sunday, Nov. 28, 2010 11:23PM EST

Last updated Sunday, Nov. 28, 2010 11:51PM EST

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The brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai lobbied aggressively for the contract to provide private security for Canada’s major aid project to rebuild the Dahla Dam in the country’s south, despite his “reputation for shady dealings,” according to leaked U.S. diplomatic cables.

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WikiLeaks has yet to release the 2,276 leaked cables from the U.S. embassy in Ottawa and consulates across Canada – which are expected to be revealed later this week. They have Ottawa buzzing with concerns about secrets revealed and, it is believed, U.S. diplomats’ private slights about Canada’s “inferiority complex.”

But in the documents released Sunday, a pair of cables from the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan reveal the line that U.S. and Canadian diplomats walked with Ahmed Wali Karzai, the powerful half brother of the President who holds sway in Kandahar, and is described by U.S. diplomats as “widely understood to be corrupt and a narcotics trafficker.”

U.S. and Canadian diplomats clearly felt they had to deal with the power-broker, but were wary of what U.S. diplomats considered his “malign” influence.

In one 2009 meeting, the senior U.S. representative in Kandahar, Frank Ruggiero, and his then Canadian counterpart, Ben Rowswell, met with Ahmed Wali Karzai and Kandahar governor Tooryalai Weesa. Mr. Karzai, commonly dubbed AWK, asked for big infrastructure projects and lobbied for all private security contracts to go to one firm – but the diplomats suggested he wanted to profit from it.

“AWK is understood to have a stake in private security contracting, and has aggressively lobbied the Canadians to have his security services retained for the Dahla Dam refurbishment. Both he and the governor have tried to exert control over how contracts are awarded in the province,” says a cable summarizing the meeting.

The cable notes the meeting underlined the challenge of fighting corruption and connecting people to government “when the key government officials are themselves corrupt.”

A record of a later meeting between Mr. Karzai and Mr. Ruggiero, in February, 2010, indicates he was being warned not to obstruct Western allies or interfere with the police. “He appears not to understand the level of our knowledge of his activities, or that the coalition views many of his activities as malign, particularly relating to his influence over the police,” the U.S. summary notes.

THE ARROGANCE NEVER CEASES TO AMAZE ME..ACT UP HERE, LEAVE WHEN FACED WITH JAIL, LAY LOW FOR A BIT AND RETURN TO RESUME YOUR ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES…NOW WATCH THE LEFTARDS START THEIR COLLECTIVE HANDWRINGING TO MAKE SURE HE GETS HIS RIGHTS PROTECTED….

Fugitive with gang links arrested at Vancouver airport, lashes out

Siavash Askari kicks photographer’s camera upon arrest

By Kim Bolan, Vancouver SunOctober 27, 2010

Siavash Askari is arrested at Vancouver International Airport in Richmond, B. C., October 26, 2010.

Photograph by: Arlen Redekop, PNG

VANCOUVER – The Gang Task Force arrested one of two brothers with gang links at Vancouver International Airport on Tuesday after he and his sibling returned from more than two years out of the country.

Siavash Askari, 27, was clearly upset when police were there to meet him as his plane, which had come via Calgary, touched down.

He was picked up on outstanding warrants dating back to 2008.

With his hands cuffed behind his back and escorted by five police officers, Askari lowered his head to prevent a Sun photographer from getting a clear picture of his face. When the photographer continued to shoot, Askari kicked the camera out of his hand.

It sailed through the air and landed a metre away, the lens cover breaking into pieces. The lens was also damaged.

Police then restrained Askari face down on the floor inside the airport and told him he would be charged with mischief for kicking the camera.

His younger brother Sahand, who was wounded in a 2007 shootout in Richmond, arrived on the Air Canada flight with Siavash, but was not taken into custody.

The two are believed to have been living in their native Iran for more than two years.

Sgt. Shinder Kirk, who speaks for the Gang Task Force, said police had received intelligence about the return of the brothers.

“They are extremely well-known within the gang environment of Metro Vancouver,” Kirk said.

Readers commented on The Sun’s Real Scoop blog last week that the Askari brothers were en route back to Metro Vancouver, where they grew up.

Some speculated on the timing of their return, as disputes between mid-level gangsters have led to a series of recent shootings.

Warrants for Siavash Askari’s arrest were issued in Vancouver and Port Coquitlam after he missed court appearances in June and October 2008.

He has a series of convictions dating back to 2002 for a range of offences from assault causing bodily harm and resisting arrest to driving while prohibited and violating court-ordered conditions.

The most serious charge he faced, attempted murder in connection with a Richmond nightclub shooting in September 2006, was later thrown out.

Sahand, 26, was identified by police as a “suspect first” rather than a victim after he and two other gang-linked men — Nikki Tajali and Vahid Mahanian — were wounded in Richmond’s Dover Park in January 2007 in a Wild-West-style shootout in which more than 150 shots were fired. Tajali’s brother David was later gunned down in Calgary.

According to an online website, Siavash and Sahand Askari have been working as the Iranian contacts for a Vancouver-based company called Global Track and Trade.

The company is not listed in the B.C. Corporate Registry, but identifies itself online as a “B.C. based private business that specializes in international investments and trading economical resources world wide.”

“In the competitive market of international trade, we provide globalization and structure to our clients’ companies, to enable them to enhance and flourish, while keeping in accordance with all rules and regulations,” the company advertises.

The company claims to trade petroleum products from Russia, sugar cane from Brazil and rebar from Ukraine.

The Vancouver contacts for the company are listed as Daniel Lovric and Williams Njoku.

In January 2009, Lovric had five gun charges against him stayed, including unauthorized possession of firearm, occupying a vehicle in which there is firearm, possession of a prohibited/restricted firearm with ammunition, defacing a firearm serial number and careless use of a firearm.

A Crown spokesman said at the time that it could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt that a gun found in Lovric’s BMW on Jan. 26, 2008 was in his possession.

THINK ABOUT IT…

RCMP linked to controversial conference

By BRIAN LILLEY, Parliamentary Bureau

Last Updated: October 26, 2010 8:25pm

OTTAWA – A Muslim imam deemed too controversial to speak at National Defence headquarters in Ottawa will speak on Thursday at another event promoted by the RCMP.

This event will be held at the Government Conference Centre across from Parliament Hill.

Zijad Delic, the president of the Canadian Islamic Congress, had his speech at military HQ cancelled earlier this month by Defence Minister Peter MacKay. MacKay’s office said Delic and his organization were too controversial.

On Thursday, Delic will moderate a panel on the topic, “Just and Sustainable Peace – A Global Challenge.”

The conference is organized by a group called the Ottawa Group of Four and is scheduled to include Bloc MP Richard Nadeau among its speakers.

The main speakers, however, come from Iran’s Tehran University. Sayeh Hassan, a Toronto criminal lawyer and activist for the Iranian democratic movement, told QMI Agency these professors are not dissidents in the regime of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

“These are all professors that are closely linked to the regime, they are not dissidents,” Hassan said.

“People like myself that have escaped the regime and the propaganda are concerned that now they’re bringing these professors promoting the regime to Ottawa.”

Another one of the speakers is Dr. Davood Ameri of the Islamic World Peace Forum. The website for that organization features graphic anti-Semitic cartoons including one showing an Israeli soldier shooting a baby next to a sign that reads Gaza. The website’s front page focuses on what it deems human rights abuses in America and labels the U.S. a terrorist state.

The conference has been promoted within the RCMP by the federal police force’s “ethnic liaison officer.”

HE’S THAT AND MORE, A TRAITOR TO CANADA, A VIOLENT JIHADIST, MURDERER, AND A LIAR, HENCE HIS CHANGE OF PLEA. AND CANADA CAN’T WAIT TO BRING HIM BACK…WE DEPORT LITTLE OLD LADIES FOR NOT HAVING THE RIGHT PAPERWORK AND HERE WE ARE ROLLING OUT THE RED CARPET FOR A MURDERER…..DISGUSTING…

In Depth

GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba, and OTTAWA — The Canadian government has agreed to a clause in Omar Khadr’s plea bargain that says he will be returned to Canada after a year, his Canadian lawyer says.

Khadr pleaded guilty Monday to murder, attempted murder, supporting terrorism, conspiracy and spying. His lawyer, Dennis Edney, said he is confident the Canadian government will honour its part of the bargain.

“Mr. Khadr pleaded guilty this morning …in exchange for the Canadian government agreeing to repatriate him back to Canada after one year,” Edney said. “Canada’s language is sufficiently satisfactory to uphold Canada to its position, that it will take Omar Khadr back after one year.”

Edney said the lawyers received the note from Canadian government Sunday afternoon.

“We have diplomatic notes … which set out Canada’s position and set out the United States’ position,” Edney added.

Those notes will be released later this week, along with the specifics of Khadr’s plea deal.

The sentence in the plea deal is still a secret until Khadr’s seven-member military jury hands down its own sentence for Khadr.

It’s been reported the deal is for Khadr to serve eight more years in prison, with the last seven to be served in Canada.

U.S. Navy Capt. John Murphy, chief prosecutor for the office of military commissions, confirmed Khadr will be going back to Canada after one year as per the plea bargain.

But he won’t be free.

“Following one year, if there is a balance of a sentence, Omar Khadr doesn’t go back to Canada as a free man,” Murphy said. “He goes back to serve whatever remains of his sentence within the Canadian penal system and under Canadian law.”

So far the Conservative government isn’t commenting on any deal. Prime Minister Stephen Harper is travelling in the Ukraine.

“The sentence he receives needs to be restorative and rehabilitative so that he can be reintegrated back into Canadian life,” said Marston.

APPARENTLY IT’S EVERYONE ELSE’S FAULT THAT HE IS A VIOLENT JIHADIST..NICE OF CANADA TO GRANT HIM THE MERCY HE DIDN’T HAVE FOR THOSE HE WAS PLANNING ON KILLING…

Toronto 18 ringleader gets 16 years in prison

Alex Tavshunsky for Postmedia News

Court sketch of Fahim Ahmad from the trial of the Toronto 18 in Toronto May 10, 2010.

By Linda Nguyen

BRAMPTON, Ont. — The ringleader of the Toronto 18 terrorist group was sentenced Monday to 16 years in prison for masterminding plans to storm Parliament and to detonate powerful bombs in and around Toronto.

Fahim Ahmad, wearing a lime green polo T-shirt and thin-framed glasses, had no reaction when Superior Court Justice Fletcher Dawson announced the decision in a courtroom filled with his family and reporters. A woman sitting in a second room cried after the ruling was brought down.

Ahmad, 26, will be required to serve a total of eight years and three months of his sentence after being granted credit for time already served. He will be eligible to apply for parole in a little more than 3 1/2 years.

The Crown had asked the court for an 18-year prison term, citing mitigating factors, such as his youth and apparent remorse. Defence lawyer Dennis Edney painted Ahmad as a self-aggrandizing talker who lacked both the means and the willpower to carry out any of his plans.

Jusitice Dawson said he decided on a 16-year sentence because he believes Ahmad has a chance for rehabilitation once he is released. “I sincerely hope you change your views and show me that I wasn’t wrong,” he said following sentencing.

In May, Ahmad entered a guilty plea two weeks into his trial on three terrorism-related charges, including participating in a terrorist group, importing firearms and instructing others to carry out activities for the benefit of a terrorist group.

The group, known as the Toronto 18 because of the number of its members, was dismantled in 2006. Ahmad has been in police custody since June 2006.

Ahmad — who admitted to organizing two terrorist training camps — created propaganda videos and helped the group acquire firearms.

Although his plans never materialized, Justice Dawson said Ahmad was responsible for “recruiting, indoctrinating and arming” young Muslim men in his group.

Last month, in a rambling, six-page letter to the court, Ahmad said he had fallen into a “fantasy world” when he plotted to devastate Canadian infrastructure with a series of attacks. His targets were the CSIS headquarters in Toronto, the CBC building in downtown Toronto, Ottawa’s ParliamentBuildings and a number of military bases.

Ahmad, who was 21 at the time of his arrest, also placed the blame on a host of external sources, from his parents, who he said were never home, to religious leaders he turned to for guidance, to anonymous people he met online.

The atmosphere outside the Brampton courthouse, just west of Toronto, was very different Monday compared to when the trial started in 2006. Back then, there was high security and snipers on the rooftops for the hearings. On Monday, it was quiet.

Crown attorney Croft Michaelson said the prosecutors were “overall, happy” with the sentence.

“It sent out a strong signal to the community that this type of offence will not be tolerated in Canada and reflects the seriousness of the crime,” he said outside court.

He said the judge was correct to not place much weight on Ahmad’s guilty plea, calling it a “last-gasp plea for mercy.”

Mr. Michaelson said he felt “a real sense of accomplishment” that Ahmad and his associates have all been handed severe sentences for their crimes. Only two members of the Toronto 18 have yet to be sentenced, and that will happen next month.

“(These) would’ve been horrible offences we’ve ever had committed on Canadian soil, had they come to fruition,” Mr. Michaelson said. “Very, very serious crimes . . . We are fortunate that the authorities managed to stop them before the harm came to life.”

Bella Petrouchinova, another of Ahmad’s lawyers, was present at Monday’s hearing but declined to speak to media.

THE PEOPLE OF CANADA DID NOT LET OMAR DOWN, HIS TERRORIST FAMILY DID! THEY ENCOURAGED HIM TO BE A JIHADIST, TO HATE CANADA, AND THREW HIM HEADFIRST INTO WARFARE FOR ALLAH! THE WHOLE FAMILY SHOULD HAVE BEEN EXPELLED YEARS AGO! WE OWE OMAR NOTHING!

Canadian detainee Omar Khadr attends jury selection at his war crimes trial in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba August 10, 2010.

U.S. NAVAL BASE GUANTANAMO, Cuba — Omar Khadr’s Canadian lawyer charged Sunday that the “Canadian people” — in addition to the Canadian government — have let down the Canadian-born terror suspect.

Speaking on the eve of Khadr’s return to a military court, Dennis Edney insisted that there was, as of Sunday morning, no signed plea deal between the United States and the Toronto native.

Canada has — publicly at least — refused to agree to a U.S. proposal that, sources say, would see Khadr apply to be transferred to a Canadian prison in a year’s time.

According to the sources, the transfer would be part of a wider plea deal in which Khadr would admit to the war-crimes charges he faces in exchange for an eight-year “cap” on his sentence — with just the first year to be served in U.S. custody, and the rest in Canada.

“People show empathy,” Edney said of Canadians’ reaction to Khadr’s life story, which for the past eight years has seen him held at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

“(After) the fact, nothing happens. I feel, not only the Canadian government, but the Canadian people have let down a citizen, a most vulnerable citizen.”

Edney and others spoke in terms of the trial of Khadr being set to resume Monday — instead of his pleading guilty.

“If the Canadian government is not prepared to provide behind the scenes at high levels (an) assurance that it is going to give Omar Khadr and his team the necessary confidence that the bulk of any prison time coming out of this deal can and will be served in Canada, I would imagine there is a very good chance the whole thing would collapse,” said Alex Neve, secretary general of Amnesty International Canada.

Khadr, 24, would face up to life imprisonment if convicted at trial. “The calculus as to how Omar Khadr and his lawyers are going to weigh different sentencing options if obviously between them,” said Neve.

Khadr was 15 years old when he was captured by U.S. forces during a 2002 firefight in Afghanistan. He is accused of murder in the death of U.S. special forces Sgt. 1st Class Chris Speer, who was fatally wounded by a grenade explosion.